Awake In The World Podcast

The Deepest Practice a Bodhisattva can ever do is to listen deeply. The deepest thing we can ever experience is having a change of heart. Last evening at Bellwoods location. Recorded on July 12, 2011.

Discussion about contemplating someone in your life who you have a hard time seeing as a Buddha. Buddha Nature is your imagination and the way you can re-see people who have wounded you. Recorded on June 28, 2011.

There is nowhere you can stand that is not a place the Buddha hasn't practiced. The Buddha was enlightened right where you are standing. If you can see others as a Buddha you are a Buddha - even animals and trees. Story of Never Disparaging Buddha and Mark Ragosian who lived in Woodstock, New York. Recorded on June 28, 2011.

Grant Hutchinson and Carina Stone give a talk on Chapter 15 and 16 of the Lotus Sutra based on a study group. Seeing what is actually in our lives not just what we want to see. If your kids won't take medicine how do you give it to them? Recorded on June 21, 2011.

One day I can have such a killer exhale that I end as a puddle of bones on the floor and time passes instantly. A moving evening when Mike Holboom and Christine Koch give talks on Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra. Recorded on June 14, 2011.

Everyone continually breaks down infinitely. How fast can a young woman get enlightened, especially if she is underwater? Michael unpacks some parables to explore the story of an 8 year old girl who wakes up and touches every place in the Universe. Recorded on June 7, 2011

We need people who can rub our back and say "it's ok", and everything they do is jewelled. Recorded on May 24, 2011.

A man falls asleep at a party and someone sews a jewel into his coat. Some have done this for you, too. Can you realize your treasures? Recorded on May 17, 2011.

Sometimes awake, sometimes asleep; sometimes sun, sometimes moon. Michael teaches during a one-day introduction to meditation workshop on how you can turn anything into a practice, even a bike lock. Recorded on May 14, 2011.

Michael talks about Milton Friedman, Emmanuel Levinas, and how when we don't see another's face, face to face, it's easy to kill. This talk happens after Osama Bin Laden's death and the Canadian election. It goes back and forth between internal practices and community life. Recorded on May 3, 2011.

Michael Stone leads a guided meditation beginning with grounding the body, opening to sound, and feeling the breath as an anchor to present experience. Recorded on May 2, 2011.

How many kalpas, ages, eons, did the Buddha sit still before he could wake up? Why did it take so long? It takes a while for the light to shine into the darkest places. What is our relationship to time? Recorded on April 12, 2011.

One of the last days of the 6 month Precepts course. Following chanting the Heart Sutra, five students present on the five ethical values of the course, and then Michael discusses three ways of thinking about ethics. And how to look at a flower and smile. Recorded on April 7, 2011.

A son leaves his father and 50 years later the father finds ways of healing the son's low self-esteem. You don't have to be good or walk on your knees for a hundred miles, just love what you love. Recorded at Centre of Gravity, Toronto, on April 5 2011.

Michael begins by discussing death and Japan's earthquake. Using the image of the burning house and a father trying to save his children, he teaches how we need to leave our burning houses on our own steam, nobody can do it for us. The father in the parable, like the Buddha, uses skillful means to teach a path of freedom. And, is it ok to lie to uphold compassion? Recorded on March 29, 2011.

Question and answer period with Michael after Lotus Sutra, Part 4 talk. None of the teachings are true! Even the ones about your own life. Part 2 of 2. Recorded on March 22, 2011

Michael talks about Fukushima, Japan, and Libya, and how lucky we are to practice in a place that is safe. How Mahayana Buddhism developed after the death of the Buddha with an emphasis on serving others and putting off personal enlightenment to serve the world. The talk ends with a moving story about a high school student rubbing the back of an elderly man at an evacuation centre in Japan. Part 1 of 2. Recorded on March 22, 2011.

Contemporary debates about intellectual property and the practices of meditation and yoga are both built around a questioning of ideas of property, ownership, self and other. In this talk, Marcus Boon, writer, journalist and Professor of English at York University in Toronto, explores the relationship between interdependence and imitation, on the yoga mat and off, along the way reflecting on recipes, hip-hop, file sharing, laughter, money, maternity, and practice. Recorded at Centre of Gravity, Toronto on March 18, 2011.

Michael Stone gives a talk during the ethics course about the precept of Aparigraha, and using our imagination. Recorded at Centre of Gravity, Toronto, on March 17, 2011.

It's not enough that our intentions are clear, our actions need to make a difference. Being a Bodhisattva means serving all beings including one's self, yet this can only occur when we see all beings as Buddhas. Recorded on March 16, 2011.